History of the Prior Art
The use of hospital and other portable X-ray equipment has long presented technicians with problems in obtaining proper radiographs or exposures of anatomical parts or other objects being X-rayed. Proper exposure or filming not only requires that the X-ray machine or source and the cassettes are properly aligned so as to receive the desired anatomical exposure but that sufficient radiation has passed through the object being X-rayed and been received by the cassettes to insure a good radiograph. In the past, numerous portable cassette holders have been designed and developed in order to permit a relative adjustment to be made between the cassette and the X-ray source.
One example of prior art X-ray cassette holders is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,984 to J. M. Westenberger. In this disclosure, the cassette holder functions both as a guide to permit relative vertical adjustment of the film cassette and as a support or backrest for the patient being X-rayed. Other examples of prior art X-ray cassette holders include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,968,374 to Schroeder; 4,300,053 to Gaynes; and 3,967,128 to Smulewicz.
None of the foregoing patents, however, are concerned with insuring that a proper amount of radiation has been received by the X-ray cassettes and these do not disclose or suggest means for properly orienting an ionization chamber relative to the cassette and X-ray source.
The present invention is directed to an ionization chamber and support therefor which are used in conjunction with X-ray cassettes and particularly to a portable ionization chamber and support bracket for adjustably mounting the chamber to an X-ray cassette so as to be aligned with the object being X-rayed, the X-ray sources and the X-ray cassette to thereby control the amount of radiation being emitted so as to obtain properly exposed radiographs.